Monday, March 04, 2019

‘Discarded Things Once Loved’ by James Armstrong

‘Discarded Things Once Loved’ was originally created as part one of a two movement composition for a dance production choreographed by Vania Gala at the University of Northampton. Initially, James began making textural recordings by playing various hand percussion instruments and non-musical objects against muted strings. Things like rattles, shakers and hand drums were used to bring out the non-standard qualities of the electric guitar. He added some more conventional drones by sending swells through the usual delay and reverb combination so that it retains some of the characteristics of my previous releases. Everything was improvised and none of the sounds recorded were planned and James would like listeners to treat the album as an opportunity for discovery, to allow the longform recordings time and space to evolve.

All of the items that were used to play the guitar were gifts from an ex-partner and their family. As much as James was trying to avoid thinking about that period of time, there was no escaping it when the items were physically in his hands. From here the title ‘Discarded Things Once Loved’ emerged as the instruments had been hidden away gathering dust for quite some time. James also strived to see what sort of sounds could be created as a result of playing the guitar in such a way that the majority of his control and intention was removed from what came out of the instrument.
  

credits

released March 10, 2018

Written and produced by James Armstrong
Mastered by Alexander Roberts
Photography by Penny Day
Artwork by Harry Towell

license

all rights reserved







https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/discarded-things-once-loved

No comments: